


The Sun Doesn't Sleep

by honeypups



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crushes, Drabble, Fluff, Jooheon just wants to sleep, M/M, Pre-Relationship, and minhyuk wont shut up, bed sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 01:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15159641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeypups/pseuds/honeypups
Summary: "I could ask the same question — why am I listening to your stupid rambling at three in the morning when it’s about to implode my already exhausted brain and kill me?” Jooheon asked, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.“Because I’m the human embodiment of sunshine?” Minhyuk smirked, voice teasing, much to Jooheon’s displeasure. “Well, at least that’s what the replies on my selfies tell me.”-Jooheon's tired and just wants to sleep, but with Minhyuk is anything ever that simple?





	The Sun Doesn't Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> I have returned with this teeny tiny baby fic that I wrote at 3AM the other night (save for the last 200-300 words) and once again: I am Nervous about posting but... I hope it'll keep you going until I write something longer again. 
> 
> Thank you to Kalie for reading this over for me since I can't read my own writing (what would I do without you?) and thank you to Em (@/another_one_oh) for giving me this idea!

Jooheon was positive that sharing a room with a newborn baby would be less exhausting than sharing a room with a restless Minhyuk.

“Jooheon?”

_Nothing._

“Jooheonie?” Minhyuk nipped at his lower lip, shifting on his mattress to face his roommates bed.

The room remained soundless, save for his own shuffling underneath the duvet as his whispers remained unacknowledged.

“Jooheon,” he tried again, the low echo of his voice penetrating the thick silence that fell over the dimly-lit room. He’d tried scrolling through his social media in the hopes that it’d lull him into an eventual slumber, but his attempts were evidently futile. “Are you awake?”

“Well if I _wasn’t_ I am _now,”_ Jooheon hissed, exasperation plain as day in his tone. Minhyuk didn’t even need a source of light to tell that Jooheon was shooting him one of his glares that looked more like a pouting child than anything else.

“You only came back home and got into bed like ten minutes ago,” Minhyuk responded, rolling his eyes subconsciously. “You can’t fall asleep within ten minutes of being back. That isn’t even possible.”

“After working _all night_ in a studio that’s too hot, staring at a monitor that’s too bright all while racking your brain to come up with lyrics for our upcoming album, it’s _very much_ possible,” Jooheon retorted through gritted teeth, his sleep deprivation making him less pliant than the elder was accustomed to. The thing is, he’d grown accustomed to the tossing and turning from Minhyuk — that was a doddle to handle at this point — but the nights when the older of the pair couldn’t settle and decided that the best option was to make sure that Jooheon couldn’t either? Those were tedious. “You never even gave me the chance to get to sleep, anyway. How am I supposed to sleep with you flailing for five minutes straight, let alone the whispering?”

He shot Jooheon mischievous grin, despite being unsure as to whether or not the other could even see his features through the faint lighting. “What’s the time?”

“Time for you to shut the fuck up and go to sleep,” Jooheon quipped back, releasing a frustrated sigh as he shuffled around in his sheets for a moment before pulling out his phone and squinting at the obnoxiously bright screen in front of him. “It’s 3AM. Happy now?”

Jooheon groaned inwardly as he thought about waking up in the morning. It wasn’t possible to sleep in when you were preparing for a comeback and while Minhyuk appeared to have almost limitless energy, he didn’t and he really could do with the few hours sleep he was allowed to have.

“You know, sometimes I wonder why we sleep at night instead of during the day,” Minhyuk began, receiving an irritated whine from Jooheon because he knew where this was going and it wasn’t to the land of sleep, that was for sure. “Isn’t darkness the natural state of the universe? We’re only given light from a burning ball of gas that’ll one day implode and kill us all. Why do we bow down to that bitch?”

“I don’t know. I could ask the same question — why am I listening to your stupid rambling at three in the morning when it’s about to implode my already exhausted brain and kill me?” Jooheon asked, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

“Because I’m the human embodiment of sunshine?” Minhyuk smirked, voice teasing, much to Jooheon’s displeasure. “Well, at least that’s what the replies on my selfies tell me.”

“Right,” Jooheon acknowledged. “And do you know what the sun does at night? It goes to sleep, which is exactly what you should be doing.”

“It doesn’t, though,” Minhyuk counteracted, repositioning his body underneath the covers in the noisiest way possible. It was probably the sleep deprivation that made it seem that way, but nonetheless, Jooheon wished he’d shut up and stay still before he was forced to check himself into a mental institution in the hopes it’d salvage his sanity. “It’s always daytime somewhere, isn’t it? So technically, the sun never sleeps.”

“Good for the sun,” Jooheon mumbled into his pillow, nestling his head as far into the plushness as it can get as if it would somehow miraculously teleport him out of this room and into some parallel universe — one without Minhyuk’s voice cutting through silence every other second. “I’m a human being though and I actually _need_ to sleep.”

“Where’s the evidence that we actually need as much sleep as scientists say we do though?” Minhyuk questioned as if Jooheon held all the answers in the world. “It could easily be fabricated, couldn’t it? I’ll bet nobody has ever questioned them on that so how do we _really_ know?”

“I can _guarantee_ people have questioned it before you have,” Jooheon said, the growing vexation becoming audible in his tone. “Why does it matter anyway? If you’re tired, you sleep and if other people are tired, you let them sleep. It’s as simple as that.”

“True, but what about when you’re tired and you _can’t_ sleep?” Minhyuk asked, tossing and turning for a few seconds until Jooheon noticed his sitting silhouette in the bed next to his own. “Sometimes it isn’t as simple as just crawling into bed and falling into a peaceful slumber.”

“I don’t _know,_ Minhyuk,” Jooheon spat, irritation finally getting the better of him. As much as he loved Minhyuk, he was too tired for this, he really was. “What is _wrong_ with you tonight? You’re restless a lot but honestly, you’re driving me insane.”

There was a pause in the flow of conversation and Jooheon hoped that it’d remain, even if only for a couple of minutes so his brain could turn off and travel to dreamland where it desperately needed and deserved to be. Needless to say, luck didn’t tend to be on his side.

“I can’t sleep,” he whispered, voice low and almost timid which was unusual for him.

“Yeah, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that part out,” Jooheon remarked, lightening his tone a little so he didn’t sound quite so abrupt. _“Why_ can’t you sleep, though?”

“I don’t have my whale,” he muttered, sheepish and quiet. “I need to sleep with it or with someone else or I can’t settle.”

“Seriously?” Jooheon asked, disbelief plain as day in his slightly higher than usual pitch. “Where is it?”

There were a lot of things Jooheon had observed about Minhyuk and the fact he fell asleep clinging to that plushie was one of them, but he didn’t realise it was a necessity. He managed to survive without it while they toured after all.

“Seriously,” Minhyuk repeated, a faint hint of bashfulness somehow able to be distinguished even through the darkness of the room. “I put him in the wash this morning and I thought he’d be dry by night but when I went and checked he was still damp and I didn’t want to put him in the dryer and risk ruining him.”

 _“Oh,”_ Jooheon acknowledged, not quite sure how he should respond in this situation; what was he supposed to do? If it had been Changkyun, he’d have patted the mattress and beckoned him to climb on in, but things were different with Minhyuk now. “Um, have you tried hugging a pillow or something?”

The disbelieving scoff that came from the elder was very much like him; loud and dramatic and made to draw attention, not be ignored. Without being able to gauge his expression, it was hard to tell what he was thinking, but from what Jooheon could gather through sound alone he’d guess that he was either pouting, offended or both, which was unusual given that Jooheon was usually the one pouting about something or other.

“Hugging a pillow doesn’t work, I've tried that a lot and it doesn’t do it for me,” he stated after his extended silence, irritation still present. “You’re such an ass.”

“Says the one that’s kept me awake for God knows how long,” Jooheon huffed, offended. “Why am _I_ an ass? I didn’t even _do_ anything.”

“I said that I needed to cuddle someone to fall asleep and you told me to hug a _pillow_ when you’re right _there,_ " Minhyuk said, voice accusatory, as if Jooheon had done the worst thing in the world by not offering to be his cuddle buddy for the night. “Kihyun doesn’t hesitate and he doesn’t even _like_ being showered with affection, not like you do.”

He could’ve denied knowing that that was what Minhyuk wanted, but he wasn’t all that good at hiding the truth and even if he had been passable, the elder would’ve been the one person that would’ve spotted that he was bullshitting from a mile off.

It’s not a big deal, either. They’ve slept in the same bed, limbs tangled together and skin pressed flush again one another before, but it was different then. Jooheon hadn’t developed feelings — or at least, he hadn’t come to recognise them yet.

Really, he wished he’d never recognised them, that he’d remained oblivious until he’d moved on to someone else because it’s been torturous since the moment he figured it out. Sharing a room with someone you want would’ve been hard enough on its own, let alone working with them, being friends with them and said person being affectionate by nature — it’s a torment.

It’s not a big deal, but that doesn’t make his heart rate return to normal or his stomach stop twisting when he pulls back the covers and whispers a small, “well cuddle me, then,” into the air.

When Jooheon heard the bed creak and the bare feet pat against the wooden flooring, his heart tripped a little. He bit down on his lip roughly, his nerves felt like insects crawling all over his skin. All he can do is hope that when he wakes up in the morning, he isn’t sporting something that would cross the line — or several lines. He knew that, hypothetically speaking, _if_ that happened, it would be natural — it just _happens_ sometimes — and that Minhyuk wouldn’t care, but unfortunately for him, his dignity would.

It was the feeling of the mattress sinking slightly underneath the additional weight as Minhyuk slipped into the bed beside him that made him realise he needed to breathe. Even before their skin had made contact, it felt warmer beneath the covers and Jooheon wasn't sure if it was the other's body heat or his own nerves getting the better of him. Minhyuk's arm instinctively curled around Jooheon's waist, body shuffling around as he made himself comfortable.

“Thanks,” Minhyuk whispered into his skin, fingers absentmindedly leaving light trails along Jooheon’s abdomen. “Mm, you really _are_ the best to cuddle. I might think about trading the whale in on a permanent basis if it means getting to do _this_ every night instead.”

_As if he could live without that dumb whale._

“Be quiet,” Jooheon mumbled bashfully, heat spreading out from the apples of his cheeks to the tips of his ears. Really, he hoped that Minhyuk wouldn’t be able to feel the sharp incline in his body temperature.

“I’m not very good at that,” Minhyuk replied, still brushing his fingers across Jooheon’s exposed skin. “Being quiet, I mean.”

“No shit,” Jooheon said, sarcasm hiding the intensity of what he was actually feeling in the moment. The problem was, he didn’t actually want Minhyuk to shut up anymore because his desire to sleep had left the moment he crawled under the covers alongside him. “You say that like we haven’t lived together for however long. Trust me, I _know._ ”

He felt Minhyuk smirk against his skin, their bodies pulled as close together as humanly possible. This was how he was, though — he knew that — and this is what made him

apprehensive to share a bed with him in the first place, because this was what it was like every single time.

“Why are you like this?” Jooheon murmured the rhetorical question under his breath, positive the other wouldn’t hear it. Even if he did hear it though, he didn’t expect a serious answer.

“It’s because you’re cute,” he responded, pressing a single chaste kiss upon Jooheon’s shoulder blade. “You’re less grouchy now,” he noted, not giving Jooheon time to react to the kiss he’d received. “Change of heart? You’ve decided you like listening to me all night?”

“Definitely not,” Jooheon replied, certain. “Just… I _like_ being cuddled, that’s all. It distracts me from how annoying you actually are.”

Minhyuk gave Jooheon a small hum of acknowledgement, the room otherwise falling into silence once more, the elder’s fingers brushing through Jooheon’s hair rhythmically and if his pulse had the decency to calm down, he was positive it’d have lulled him to sleep almost instantly because he was so gentle. He could be boisterous and playful, but in moments like this, he touched Jooheon as if he was the most precious thing on Earth.

“I like you,” was the next thing Minhyuk breathed out, the words lingering everywhere — against the skin of his neck they’d vibrated against as he spoke, in his ears like an echo that ceased to end, in his veins like a fire setting him ablaze — they were everywhere, he could even feel them embedded inside his skin. “You know, right?”

“Know what?” Jooheon asked, doing his best to keep his composure as he rotated his body so he was facing the other. “That you like me? Sure. You like everyone. You’re a walking ball of affection.”

“But it’s _different_ with you,” he stated, his eye contact intense even through the darkness. “You don’t know?” Jooheon shook his head, oblivious as usual. “Oh, honey… How can you not know? Everyone knows.”

“Well, I guess I’m an idiot then since I don’t,” he pouted like a petulant child, embarrassed, confused and pissed off all at once.

Perhaps sulking wasn’t the best way to act in such a situation, but it was a very Jooheon response.

“Do you _want_ to know?” the elder asked, large palm cupping the cheek that wasn’t smooshed against the pillow, his gaze not even faltering for a second. Jooheon’s breath audibly caught in his throat, his fingers curling into the fabric of the duvet. He could feel the anxiety growing and growing inside of him with every passing millisecond. “Because if you don’t we can go to sleep and wake up and pretend none of this ever happened, that this was a dumb, vivid dream that both of us somehow happened to share.”

The ability to verbalise his thoughts and feelings dissipated and all Jooheon could do was nod, small and timid. There were a billion things he wanted to do, to say, but it felt like he was paralysed.

“I like you so much, Jooheon. I think Kihyun’s probably sick of me prattling on about how much I adore you — how much I want to kiss you,” he said, thumb softly running across Jooheon’s cheek. “I— you really didn’t know? _Fuck,_ you’re so beautiful, Jooheon. I could listen to you talk forever and… God, I just… like you a lot. More than I can even explain, which says a lot since I can never usually shut up.”

Jooheon is caught off guard for a couple of disoriented seconds; he doesn't quite know what to do or what to say or how to act and he _hears_  his own blood rushing in his ears and he can _feel_ the thrumming against his ribcage and…

“So kiss me,” is the response he comes up with and it’s not romantic or cute — nothing like he’d dreamed his confession would be, if ever he worked up the courage to actually confess in the first place — but it was all he could manage right now. “Please. I want you to. You have _no_ idea how much I want you to.”

Minhyuk nipped at his lower lip in a brief moment of inhibition, his mind a swirling, chaotic mess but the hesitation couldn’t have lingered for any longer than a few seconds. He moved smoothly, situating his knees on either of Jooheon’s hips, propping himself above him with his palms buried into the mattress and then he leaned down, finding Jooheon’s face with his apparent instinct and pressed their lips together and it’s everything you’d expect a first kiss in the dark to be — soft but clumsy and a little bit too eager.

Jooheon couldn’t hold back his grin as he reciprocated, kissing him back with an equal amount of eagerness as his fingers laced themselves into Minhyuk’s locks.

It was soft, the kiss, his insides — everything. It was all he needed, all he _wanted._

“I’ve wanted to do that to you for so long,” Minhyuk breathed, pressing a light kiss to Jooheon’s forehead. “There are so many things I want to with you. _To_ you.”

Jooheon felt his entire body tingle at the words, like he was vibrating with anticipation as adrenaline coursed through his veins. “We can do all those things.”

“ _Oh?_  So does that mean you like me back?” Minhyuk asked, pressing a few light pecks to Jooheon’s lips.

" _Mm,_ " Jooheon mumbled against Minhyuk’s lips, fingers still caught in his hair. “It means I _love_ you back.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you read this nonsense: THANK YOU!!! You can find (and give me ideas) on: 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/wonhyuuk)
> 
>  
> 
> [Tumblr](https://wonhos.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> [Curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/wonhyuuk)


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